Taxi: The Apartment/Alex’s Romance

Not available for streaming; there are some pretty good deals on used DVD copies of the second seasonon Amazon.

First off, this is (un?)fortunately not Taxi‘s attempt at a take on the 1960 Billy Wilder movie that I’m sure every single person has seen and loves as much as I do. (Thought that’s not necessarily a bad idea — what is Judd Hirsch if not a Jewish Jack Lemmon?) “The Apartment” is, rather, one of those Taxi episodes during which the writers and producers forgot that they are making a morality play disguised as a sitcom and ham it up as best they can. (Not that the show can’t have goofier episodes, but this is not the way to go about it.)

The titular apartment is Latka’s, a penthouse that he signs a lease (he understands it as “leash”) on after he was evicted from his tenement and thrown out of the garage by Louie. It’s the ugliest, most garish, most 1970s gaudy apartment in the world, so in Taxi‘s eyes, it’s paradise. (It even comes with a maid.) The whole crew moves in, with the episode covering the whole month that Latka has the apartment for (since he only has as much savings as one month’s rent: $3,000). Noticeably, no one mentions anything about contributing to the rent themselves.

That’s it! That’s the episode. Latka got fucked over by a shady landlord and signed a lease for a $3,000-a-month apartment, and his friends don’t do anything about it besides come and stay at his sweet pad. On the last night, they throw a “rent party,” charging customers $10 to get in — though when only men show up, they ask for a refund even after Elaine dances for them. (Also, for some reason, former Chicago Bear Dick Butkus guest stars as one of the party guests.) It’s unclear, by the way, how exactly Latka gets out of his “leash.” The episode ends with him and the maid going to the bedroom on his last night in The Apartment to make “nik-nik.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“Alex’s Romance”

Not available for streaming; there are some pretty good deals on used DVD copies of the second seasonon Amazon.

After Alex falls for an actor friend of Bobby’s who just got fired off of a soap opera, this prompts an examination by the show of his masculinity and ego via his claimed “pragmatism.” Joyce, the actor, is portrayed as some kind of crazy actor basket case, like Bobby more than occasionally is. She says so herself to Alex many, many times, and his response is that he would be “good for her” because he’s even-keeled and “pragmatic.” Beyond the writers not really recognizing the toxic straight white male ego that permeates all media, but especially media created before our current social justice awareness movement, Alex is a hypocrite for all his claims of pragmatism. As Frank Lovece and Jules Franco write in Hailing Taxi:

Part of Alex is always straining to be impulsive, to let loose, hence his sudden drive to Miami to see his daughter in episode #1…. And rather than being friends with blue-collar cabbies like himself, Alex chooses fledgling actors, boxers, and art mavens — hardly “practical,” “pragmatic” types.… We can already see that Alex’s pragmatism may be less self-described than self-inflicted.

So, of course, when Joyce gets a job in LA and has to move, Alex decides to propose — after two weeks with her. Complete with balloons and violins. Clearly there is no option but for Joyce to say no.

After his rejection, and she leaves, Alex sits alone in the garage, looking like a sitcom’s idea of a depressed person. Jim and Latka sit next to him, then take him into the back room to give him a pep talk. Jim sermonizes from behind Latka’s tool locker about how life is like an ice cream cone, and how if you don’t eat it fast, it will drip down your arm. And for one of the first and potentially only times on the show, Rev. Jim makes all the sense in the world.